The Love Yer Dog Story
It all began with Shila, a 4 year old Malamute, who was diagnosed with a devastating illness known as IMHA (Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia) while visiting Colorado. Mike and Gail, her owners, found a treatment center and chose to stay with her throughout her treatment at the Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital. As they sat on the floor tending to their beloved dog for those 30 days, often grabbing some pillows and blankets so they could sleep beside her, they felt helpless. It was the first time they were not in control of ensuring the wellness and happiness of their furry family member. That helpless feeling turned into an epiphany for them.
A seed of inspiration took root to find ways they could both help and give back to animals, pet owners, and organizations whose mission it was to take care of neglected, sick, and homeless animals. While researching ways to accomplish this goal, something interesting happened: they realized that often the shampoos and medications owners were giving their pets to help them were in fact hurting them and making disease and illness more likely, or existing conditions worse. And they realized that other pet owners probably didn’t know this either.
Virtually all topical treatments, from healing sprays to every day shampoos, contained chemicals and fragrances which often caused or contributed to medical conditions. And pets that didn’t have medical issues were also at risk as the “typical” products on the market damaged the skin, coat, and other areas of their pet, which they applied without a second thought.
Gail and Mike dug deeper and realized, based on real studies, that chemical and fragrance free solutions were optimal in both maintenance and treatment of their pets. The revelation occurred when they realized Shila was being treated using similar chemicals, which goes against the natural way animals heal. And their beloved Shila, whose immune system had become so severely compromised, was being treated with chemicals that were counter productive to her healing process.
After a long battle, Shila was no longer able to keep up the fight and she succumbed to IMHA. It was a sad day obviously, and motivated Gail and Mike to find a better way to both heal animals as well as prevent conditions from arising.
Shortly thereafter, the owner of a company called Go Green Inc. was visiting the area where Gail and Mike lived and happened to stop by their shop. Right there at the Living Waters Health Food Store, Gail shared Shila’s story with him, and told him of her disappointing results in the pursuit for finding healthy and clean canine skincare products.
It turned out this unexpected visitor had created his own skin care line that cleared up psoriasis in humans and had the ability to mend diabetic wounds without the use of chemicals or fragrance. Upon hearing their story and their commitment and tremendous compassion for animals, he became inspired and formulated a pet product, exclusively launching the Love Yer Dog line of skincare products!
This was a sign for both Gail and Mike. They knew then that they had the ability to help millions of pet owners treat their animals without the harmful chemicals and with even better results. This became their mission. In the name of Shila. They gathered a team of animal lovers, product experts, and supporters and Love Yer Dog was founded.
The whole Love Yer Dog Team began an awesome journey of bringing honestly healthy pet products to animal lovers everywhere. Through word of month, and the overwhelming reception they received from happy pet owners and organizations that help animals every day, they understood the level of impact they could have nationwide.
It was apparent that they needed to come up with a way to effectively spread the word even faster in order to help more Humane Societies and shelters treat animals in a healthier, more effective manner. But not only did they want to offer better solutions to people, they wanted to also contribute to, and grow rescue organizations’ resources as well, because many are extremely underfunded.